2020 Spring Projects
- Radio Telescope – Data
Project Mentors: Drs. Steven Gibson and Doug Harper
Jared Parker and Sam Everson
Students will build upon existing code from previous projects that uses a myRIO and an RTL-SDR to acquire data from the WKU Radio Telescope by upgrading the SDR to an NI USRP-2900. This work will provide a significant gain in bandwidth, sample rate and resolution over the existing codebase with the RTL-SDR.
- Radio Telescope – Motor Controller
Project Mentors: Drs. Steven Gibson, Doug Harper, and Gordon Smith
Parker Stewart and Dylan Skaggs (myRIO side)
Brianna Rech and Minh Tran (Host PC side)
Students will start with an existing application that runs on a Windows computer to control the two motors connected to the azimuthal and altitude axes of the WKU Radio Telescope and will extend this application so that it can control the motors remotely. One team of students will work on code that will run on a myRIO to connect directly to the motors and the other team will work on code that will run on a Windows or Mac computer to communicate with the myRIO application to control and monitor the position of the telescope.
- Pilot Chair Simulator
Project Mentors: Dr. Chris Byrne
Micah Thornton and James Piercy
Students will improve an existing application that measures the vertical position and the acceleration (or force) of a mechanical system in WKU Engineering that simulates the motion experienced by a pilot in a cockpit.
- iOLab Data Logger:
Dr. Doug Harper
Colin Loxley and Anna Reneau
Students will complete a LabVIEW Library (.lvlib) that allows one to interface with the sensors on the iOLab Wireless Lab System. The library will include routines to establish communication between the iOLab hardware and a virtual USB com port, to select and configure sensors, and to acquire data from the device. A basic graphical user interface will be developed that will demonstrate the capabilities of the library. Significant work has already been completed on this library and this project is designed to complete the library so that it is a fully functional system.
- Damped Driven Oscillator (Chaotic Pendulum):
Drs. Ivan Novikov and Doug Harper
Alex Driehaus and Josh Stinson
An oscillator consisting of an aluminum disk connected to 2 springs, with a point mass on the edge of the aluminum disk to make the oscillator nonlinear, will be driven at a constant angular velocity using a motor. Changing the frequency of the driver will allow one to investigate the progression from predictable motion to chaotic motion. Magnetic damping can be adjusted to change the character of the chaotic motion. The angular position and velocity of the disk will be recorded as a function of time using an encoder. A real-time phase plot will be made by graphing the angular velocity versus the displacement angle of the oscillation and these data will be streamed to disk in a TDMS format file.
- Damped Driven Oscillator (Electrical Oscillator):
Drs. Ivan Novikov and Doug Harper
Lars Hebenstiel and David Cambron
The Duffing oscillator is periodically driven system with a non-linear elasticity. In this project, students will build an electrical circuit that has the same mathematical behavior as a Duffing oscillator and in addition to driving it with a standard periodic driving force will also add a random noise term in order to be able to study stochastic resonance.
- HeathCo [Need a Name Here]
Jonathan Adams and William PriddyAn automated light test that allows one to determine the amount of lux required for a light sensor to determine if it is night or day. More on this later !!
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